In January, I told you about the Google International Online Science Fair. This science fair was seeking entries of original science projects from students aged 13-18. I just received word that Google's panel of judges have identified 60 semi-finalists and are giving the public the chance to decide which project will win the People's Choice Award. One of these semi-finalists, selected from a pool of over 7500 entries from more than 90 countries, was submitted by Georgia Bondy, in the UK. In her project, she asked whether humans can assess a person's genetic compatibility through taste.

This interesting question has a sound biological basis: the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a large gene family found in most vertebrates. The highly variable MHC genes encode proteins that play an important role in the immune system, but also include a large number of genes with no known immunological function. What might these MHC genes be doing? There is evidence from mice and a number of fish species that the ability to assess a potential mate's MHC by odour and taste plays a role in mate choice. The "compatible genes hypothesis" proposes that animals select mates whose complement of MHC genes is dissimilar to their own to avoid inbreeding and to increase the genetic diversity of their offspring. There is some evidence to suggest this may also be the situation in humans.

According to a study that Ms Bondy found, the ability to smell MHC seems to be most prevalent in men. Since taste and smell are dependent upon each other, it is reasonable to ask if humans can taste whether a potential mate is genetically compatible -- can we taste each other's genes?

To test this hypothesis, Ms Bondy asked five men to rate their affinity to the smell and taste of five women. This study was too small to be statistically significant, but there were several extreme outlying results. These outliers point to a strong correlation in a few cases -- suggesting that taste may be useful when a female is strongly attractive or repulsive to a male.

"I think that is down to the difficulty in differentiating between human tastes," explained Ms Bondy in email. "[Y]ou would only taste something if it was very beneficial to you (or your offspring) or very non-beneficial."

Ms Bondy, who plans to attend Cambridge University to pursue a PhD in neuroscience, said this competition inspired her to delve deeply into her topic.

"I kept finding more and more links between taste and choosing mates and every link spurred me on to find out more."

When asked what she learned along the way, Ms Bondy replied: "I understand to an extent how many variables need to be taken into account when conducting experiments."

"I also learnt that not everything goes to plan on your first attempt," she added. "[E]xperimenting is a lot harder than you'd think."

She also discovered it was challenging to find willing research subjects.

"The only people involved have been my close friends and anybody else I could rope into taking part in an experiment for free (not an easy feat)."

But despite the challenges, learning about the natural world is a source of joy.

"I never stop questioning the world around me," remarked Ms Bondy. "It was exciting when I got to the stage where my teachers couldn't answer my questions anymore. That's what really pushed me towards science; the fact that there is so much left [to be] explored."

Here is the video synposis of Ms Bondy's experiment, which also serves as her entry into this competition:

This is just one of the 7500 scientific projects that young scientists from around the world have conducted for this competition. As I mentioned, there are 60 semi-finalists who are competing for the People's Choice award, which you can vote on right now. The People's Choice winner will receive a $10,000 scholarship, intended to be used to further his or her education. The deadline for voting is 20 May at 1159 EST and you can vote once in each of the three age-group categories; ages 13-14; ages 15-16 and ages 17-18. The People's Choice winner will be announced on 23 May, along with 5 finalists in each age category.

Disclaimer: I have no connection whatsoever with Ms Bondy nor Google or any of its science fair partners. I am merely pointing out to my readership that the UK has a semi-finalist in this international competition and I sincerely hope that one day, scientists will be a source of recognition and public pride just as sports figures and movie stars are now. Maybe that day has finally come.